On 9/17, thousands around the U.S. stood with Colombian GM workers on hunger strike. Prominent faith leaders made statements and fasted in solidarity. Labor groups passed resolutions in support of the workers. Activists protested at GM headquarters and other locations around the country.

In the wake of failed mediation with GM, ASOTRECOL has restarted their hunger strike. Witness for Peace calls on supporters to demand GM return to the negotiating table to reach a just and fair solution.

A small group of former General Motors Co. (GM) employees in Colombia who sewed their mouths shut as part of a three-week hunger strike over a dispute with the auto maker have called off the strike, GM said Thursday. The hunger strike began Aug. 1 in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. The workers claim they were fired from GM's local unit Colmotores more than a year ago due to serious on-the-job injuries sustained while lifting heavy objects and doing repetitive movements on the assembly line and other tasks.

In Bogota, Colombia workers from a General Motors plant continue their protest outside the US Embassy. Thirteen current and former workers from GM’s Colmotores plant, launched a hunger strike earlier this month after camping out outside the Embassy for a year. Some have also sewn their mouths shut. The workers say they were dismissed from the factory after being injured on the job. GM denies the claims and says no worker has been dismissed due to health reasons. Colombia remains a dangerous place for workers and labor leaders.

Nine days into a hunger strike in which he has sewn shut his mouth, Jorge Parra, a former worker for General Motors in Colombia, says his condition is deteriorating. “I have terrible pains in my stomach, my lips are swollen and sore, and I am having problems sleeping,” he says. “But I will not give up.” The 35-year-old is one of a group of men who say they were fired after suffering severe workplace injuries at GM’s Bogota factory, Colmotores, and have taken drastic action to demand compensation.

At the beginning of this month a group of former General Motors (GM) workers stitched their lips shut and began a hunger strike in the Colombian capital, Bogota. They had already spent over a year outside the US embassy with no success in fighting against what they said was their unfair dismissal. The protestors say GM has fired more than 200 employees after they reported on-the-job injuries, including herniated discs, carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis, at the company's Colombian plant.

Outside of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, 13 former General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) employees are staging a hunger strike protest charging worker mistreatment by the company, and seven of those men have sewn their mouths shut. The protesting workers, part of the Association of Injured Workers and Ex-Workers of General Motors Colombia (Asotrecol), assert that they and as many as 200 other employees were fired by GM's Colombian subsidiary GM Colmotores following on-the- job injuries and that the company was responsible for "systemic negligence of the workers' health and well-being."

In the wake of yesterday's announcement that ASOTRECOL and GM agreed to a framework for settlement of the workers' claims of illegal firings, Martin Sheen joined rights groups in calling for swift negotiations that meet the workers' demands.

Columbus is credited with forging the first links between American and European civilizations. But whether the manner in which these cultures collided merits commemoration as a federal holiday is doubtful at best.

Witness for Peace founder and Southeast Regional Organizer Gail Phares applauds Obama's decision to stop deportation proceedings against immigrants who pose no threat to national security or public safety....and pushes for the next step in comprehensive immigration reform.

WFP member Martin Lepkowski on immigration and trade policy reform: U.S. taxpayers can spend billions of dollars to build walls and prisons but this issue will not go away. What is needed is a just immigration-reform policy. We need a fair-trade agreement, not a free-trade agreement that continues to impoverish the poor in Mexico, forcing them to migrate.

The agreement will also prove disastrous for Colombia's small farmers. If passed, subsidized U.S. grain will flood the Colombian market and leave at least 400,000 farmers without their previous source of income, writes WFP intern Kelly Miller.

The nefarious Colombia trade agreement would give corporate profits a small boost, but would have disastrous impacts on the working class and the environment both at home and abroad, says WFP intern Kelly Miller.

Church Women United have awarded long-time Witness for Peace activist Phyllis T. Albritton the Human Rights Award. Phyllis has served on the WFP board of directors, as our Virginia state coordinator and was a WFP delegate to Nicaragua.

A Washington-based nonprofit, Witness for Peace, presented a letter with 1,300 signatures at Chiquita's annual meeting. The group wants Chiquita to make a formal apology and establish a multimillion dollar fund for victims of Colombian terrorism. It also asked for the Cincinnati-based produce company to fire executives who were involved in making payments to Colombian paramilitary groups.

A Washington-based nonprofit, Witness for Peace, presented a letter with 1,300 signatures at Chiquita's annual meeting. The group wants Chiquita to make a formal apology and establish a multimillion dollar fund for victims of Colombian terrorism. It also asked for the Cincinnati-based produce company to fire executives who were involved in making payments to Colombian paramilitary groups.

Activists from the Latin America Solidarity Committee visited the federal courthouse yesterday afternoon to urge members of the U.S. Congress to support a new House resolution that addresses the large-scale internal displacement of populations in Colombia.

A delegation of 15 Long Islanders - which included educators, university students, and government appointees from both Nassau and Suffolk counties - traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico and made a surprising discovery. They learned that Mexican migration patterns are inextricably linked to the global price of corn.

In March 2006, Martha Giraldo returned to her father’s farm outside of Cali, Colombia, to find the property surrounded by soldiers and her father dead. Giraldo speaks about the impunity enjoyed by the government actors carrying out extrajudicial killings of Colombian civilians.

The Rev. Kenneth Weare traveled to Honduras Witness for Peace to gather testimony and look into human rights abuses inflicted by the regime that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya in a June 2009 military coup.

As Mexican security budgets inflate with U.S. aid intended to combat the rising power of drug trafficking and organized crime these funds are increasingly being used to protect the interests of multinational corporations.

A Colombian newspaper reports on the protest in Washington, calling for a shift from military aid for Colombia to humanitarian assistance for the displaced and a continued hold on the U.S.-Colombia FTA.

The Honorable R. Scott Kennedy received the 2008 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize for his work as co-founder of Witness for Peace, the Resource Center for Nonviolence and Interfaith Peacebuilders, which have sent educational delegations to countries around the world to those countries whose people suffer from conflict, lack of educational opportunities, and social injustice.